To Great Grandmothers

Seated third from left, Susan Geist Mize  surrounded by her family. Circa, 1920s

They were Welch, Pennsylvania Dutch, Moravian (Czech), and Scottish. Their DNA blended to create South Dakota families. As a descendant, I am part of them.

Whenever I get to feeling “sorry” for myself, I think of my great grandmothers.

They survived things I can only imagine.

Though I never knew any of them (they were long gone before I was born), the stories about them have taught me resilience, made me laugh, and instilled in me the importance of faith, hope, and family ties.

Just like the dragon from the Welsh flag, they have also given me strength.

Emily Elizabeth Manchester was born 1854 in Wisconsin, to Amos Manchester and a widowed Welsh immigrant, Amiah Williams. This great grandmother had seven Williams half-brothers and sisters, most born in Wales, and two full siblings, Martha and John, born in the United States. 

Emily Manchester. Circa, 1910s

The Civil War came, her father, Amos heralded the call. Emily was eight. When he returned, he was not the same. Emily’s mother, Amiah and her father Amos divorced. Amiah held the family together. She lived to be 92 years old and a beloved mother. 

In 1874, Emily married a dashing young man, Henry Leach, Jr. who whisked her away from Wisconsin to his family in Connecticut. Just three years after the birth of their only child, my grandmother, Helen Leach Adkins, Henry left to marry another woman.

As a single woman with a daughter, it was tough times in Connecticut. Emily did what she could to survive. She was a long way from her own family support system.

Henry Leach, Jr. Circa 1870s

Hiram Rider, a farm laborer, became enchanted with Emily and they were married. Little Helen Leach was dubbed Nellie Rider, though never officially adopted. 

Helen Leach aka Nellie Rider. Circa, 1879

Between, 1881 and 1885, Emily gave birth to two sons, Hiram, Jr., and Jay. Hiram, 6 years old and Jay, 3, succumbed to dysentery in 1887. The family was elated when another son was born in 1889, Spencer.

Nellie writes to her Aunt Martha, “He is growing as fast and as plump as a turkey we have for Christmas dinner, although we don’t eat him!”

In 1891, she writes again, “I said Spencer was sick, well he is dead. Mother (Emily) was overcome with grief. I felt sorry for her.”

Zina and Helen Adkins. Circa, 1893

By 1893, Emily’s siblings, Martha (Adkins) and John had relocated to South Dakota. Her daughter, Helen had joined Martha, then married Martha’s brother-in-law, Zina Adkins.

With no real ties to Connecticut, Emily and Hiram joined them. They rented farm land in Liberty Township, Hutchinson County.

Emily, a woman now in her 40s, birthed two more children, Cornelius Bertha (1894) and Arthur (1899). In 1906, Hiram passed, leaving Emily to become a single mother again. 

L-r: Arthur, Emily Rider, Helen Adkins, Bertha Lingscheit. Circa, 1915

This time there was family around to support her. She passed in 1934 at the home of her daughter, Bertha Lingscheit in Draper, South Dakota. Emily Rider was 80 years old. Her obituary read:

“She was always a very active woman and took pleasure in helping others and was loved by all who knew her.”

Great grandmother, Susan (Geist) Mize was from a prestigious family in Erie, Pennsylvania. Her ancestors included Conrad Geist, a Revolutionary War hero. Unlike many people of German descent who came to the Midwest in the 1880s, her people had been in the United States for many years. They were part of the original Pennsylvania Dutch called the “Palatines.” Her family carried a strong set of stiff upper lip moral beliefs.

Susan (Geist) Mize. Circa, 1890

William and Susan Mize in front of their home in Iowa. Circa, 1890s

Pennsylvania Flag from the National Archives, Circa 1863

After migrating to Iowa, Susan meet and married William J. Mize, a respected railroad engineer. She may have thought her life was settled in a great home in Dunlap. She bore fourteen children there, including my grandfather, John D. Mize. Three of them passed in their youth.

Susan Mize was not to be settled down in Iowa. The idea of a different career, and with the encouragement of his half-brother John D. Welch, Susan's husband William was lured to Parkston, South Dakota and opened a Feed Store in 1907.

Susan gathered eight of her children, said goodbye to her three married daughters, left behind the graves of the others, and dutifully followed William. 

Mize Feed Shop, William on the far left. Circa, 1910

Her son, Clarence, was the pride of the family. A good looking, well liked young man, he followed his father’s early career. In 1912, he took off for Montana to be a brakeman on the railroad. He was killed by a train in a tragic accident shortly thereafter. They buried him in the Milltown Cemetery in Hutchinson County. 

Clarence Mize and Memorial. Circa, 1912

By 1920, William decided it was time to move to Sioux City, the railroad had offered him a good opportunity. Susan gathered those children remaining at home, said goodbye to her older children who had settled into South Dakota, left behind the grave of her son, Clarence and dutifully followed William, again.

William and Susan Mize. Circa, 1920s

They lived in Sioux City for seventeen years. William died in 1937. 

This created another move for Susan, back to South Dakota to live with her son’s family, John and Amelia (Mattas) Mize.

My mother, Margaret, and her sister, Helen remember Susan’s Pennsylvania set of morals and rules.

“Whistling girls like cackling hens, always come to some bad ends,” she would admonish them if they felt joyful enough to whistle!

Susan passed at the age of 87. Her final trip back to Iowa was for burial, next to her husband and some of her children. 

Back: l-r; John Mize, Margaret (Mize) Adkins, Helen (Mize) Rauscher, Amelia Mize. Front: l-r, Susan Mize, Jim Adkins, LaVae Rauscher, Vincia Mattas. Circa, 1938

Photo of the Flag of  Moravia.

Joe Mattas, Jr. Circa, 1920s